Blood Brothers
by Rottweiler7692
Summary: Joe has doubts about if he and Frank are really brothers. Frank is 6 and Joe is 5.


Title: Blood Brothers

Author: Rottweiler7692

Rating: K

Disclaimer: don't own them

Note: This is my first Hardy Boys story and definitely not the last. I haven't read The Indian in the Cupboard for years but I'm pretty sure I remember how it goes.

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Frank Hardy held a sobbing Joe in his arms. The younger blond was burying his head in his older brother's chest. The boys' mother was visiting some relatives and their father, the famed Fenton Hardy, was in his study mulling over his newest case.

"Hey, Joey, what happened?"

Joe just shook his head as new tears spilled from his eyes. Six year old Frank and five year old Joe had just returned home from school. Joe had been crying and immediately after seeing his brother when school had ended, had latched onto him and not let him go for the past ten minutes, crying. Frank was pretty sure that it had something to do with the class bully. Just last week, Joey had been crying about something the bully had said to him.

"Joey, it's okay, you can tell me," Frank said gently, rubbing his brother's back in comforting circles like their mom always did. He knew Joe would calm down soon in his big brother's embrace. "What did they do?" he asked as Joe finally seemed to run out of tears and energy, leaning back against Frank and sighing.

Taking big, gulping breaths, Joe said, "He said, he said…"

"It's okay, I won't let him hurt you," Frank said, growing more concerned and wondering if he should get their father but decided not to. Fenton was working on an important case and the door to his study was closed, meaning that he couldn't be disturbed unless there was a life threatening problem.

Joe hadn't cried this much for a long time, not since he'd broke his wrist. That time he'd only cried because of the way everyone else was carrying on. He was actually not in a lot of pain.

"He said we couldn't, we couldn't…"

"He said we couldn't, _what_?" Frank said finally, beginning to grow impatient. He immediately calmed down as Joe rocked back and forth in his arms, shaking his head. Joe hated when people got impatient with him or yelled at him. "I'm sorry, Joey," Frank said softly, hugging Joe tighter.

"He said we couldn't be brothers because we don't look like each other. He said brothers were supposed to look like each other," Joe said, finally spitting it out and looking at Frank with wide, shining, vibrant blue eyes. "What if we aren't brothers, Frank? What if we got switched in the hospital?" Joe sniffed, looking at Frank. Surely nothing Frank said could make it better.

Frank just looked at Joe. "Oh, Joey, is that all you're worried about? We're definitely brothers. It says so on our birth certificates," Frank told his younger brother, relieved Joe wasn't hurt in any other way.

"But, but, what if the birth certifithings lied?" Joe insisted, "We could have been switched and nobody would know," Joe's blue eyes pierced Frank's brown ones and Frank, suddenly realizing his mistake but knowing what to do, smiled at him.

"C'mon Joey," Frank said as he got up and taking Joe's hand, pulled him along with him.

"Where are we going?" he asked as he followed Frank upstairs to their room.

"Remember that book Mommy was reading to us? About the Indian and the cupboard? "

"Yeah, so?" Joe demanded impatiently.

"Remember what Little Bear and Omri did at the end of the book?" Joe grinned triumphantly as he realized what Frank was talking about.

"They became _blood brothers_!"

"Yeah, so why don't we do the same thing? If we aren't brothers already, we can become brothers."

"Okay!" Joe suddenly frowned. "It's not going to hurt too much is it?"

Frank grinned, "Of course not. Besides, I'm going to do it too. We're just going to make a little cut on our wrists and join them together. Then, we'll become blood brothers even if we aren't already." Frank ran to get his pocketknife. When he'd gotten it, the boys sat on Joe's bed. "You ready?" Frank asked Joe.

"Yeah! Let's do it!" Joe said enthusiastically, bouncing up and down, the remnants of his tears completely disappeared.

"Okay, I'll just make a cut on myself and…," Frank drew away abruptly as an overly excited Joe reached for the knife to cut himself. "Wait, Joey! I'll do it myself," he said, not trusting Joe with his knife. He made the shallow cut on Joe's wrist and quickly tied their wrist together with a piece of gauze.

"Now we're blood brothers!" Joe crowed jubilantly, holding his arm up and moving closer to Frank.

"You know, Joey, it doesn't matter what we are. I would still love you, even if we weren't brothers," Frank told Joe, looking into his eyes.

Joe sighed contentedly. "But know we definitely are!"

"That's true," Frank agreed.

"And it didn't even hurt," Joe continued around a wide yawn. The excitement was leaving him sleepy and he leaned against Frank. "I love you too, Frank." He closed his eyes and Frank pulled the covers over both of them, careful not to jostle his sleeping brother and their joined wrists.

This was the way their parents found them at dinner, when Laura finally came back home. She had come to check on them, to make sure they were okay after a week with only Fenton. She wasn't worried when she found them in their room, sound asleep and curled into each other until she saw the blood soaking the gauze around their wrists.

"Frank! Joe! What happened?!" She crossed the room in three quick strides and shook them awake. Frank sat up as Joe rubbed his bleary eyes. Fenton appeared suddenly in the doorway, hearing the commotion from downstairs.

"What happened?" he asked, taking in the blood around his sons' wrists.

"Is this how you look after your children? I was only gone a week and here they are, bleeding to death!" Laura's voice raised and she asked again, "What happened?"

Joe's lips started trembling and a tear slipped from his eye. "I'm sorry," he said and Laura immediately quieted down and lifted her youngest son into her lap.

"It's okay. What happened? Frank?" she asked gently, now looking at Frank, knowing how Joe reacted under pressure. Surprisingly, it was Joe who answered.

"This boy in school said we weren't brothers so we became blood brothers like Little Bear and Omri."

"Oh, baby, of course you're brothers. Why didn't you just ask me or your father? We could have told you it was true" Laura said gently, running her hand through Joe's hair.

"Yeah, but you were gone and Daddy was on a case and, and, what if you didn't know yourself?" Joe said, looking from Laura to Fenton, then back to Laura.

Laura gave Fenton a hard look and Fenton looked sheepish. He knew what she meant by that look.

"Joey, of course you and Frank are brothers," Fenton said, taking a seat on Frank's bed.

"But we don't look alike," Joe said, "How can we be brothers if we don't look alike?"

"Joey, not all siblings look alike," Laura answered, "I don't look anything like my brother."

"How come?"

"Because, well, look at your father's hair and eyes and then Frank's."

Looking from his father to brother, then back again, Joe concluded, "They're the same color."

"Now look at my hair and eyes and yours. I know they're not exactly the same, but what do you see?" Joe ran to his mirror.

"We both have blond hair and blue eyes."

"Exactly, you take after me while Frank looks like your father. It's just the way things are. I assure you, you and Frank are definitely brothers, even if you are different."

"But that's just what makes you guys such a great team, right Joe?" Fenton asked.

"Yeah! It doesn't matter how we look, we're still brothers. Then, we didn't have to become blood brothers." Joe looked down at his red wrist as Frank looked down at his own.

Laura picked up Joe's wrist and inspected it. "I'd say you boys aren't going to forget that fact for a long time. It looks like you're going to have a scar."

"Oh well, it doesn't matter," Joe flashed Laura a 100 watt grin as his eyes lit up. "Frank and I are brothers no matter what and I love him!" Joe scrambled out of Laura's lap and over to Frank. He wrapped his arms around his big brother's chest as Frank's face reddened but he nevertheless returned Joe's hug.

Fenton and Laura exchanged a glance over their sons' heads. They knew they were both thinking the same thing. They couldn't be more proud of their sons and Fenton knew a long talk about his job was waiting as soon as they retired to their room that night. Groaning inwardly, Fenton couldn't wait but when Joe looked up at Frank with an adoring look on his face, he knew it was definitely worth it to have such awesome sons that got along so well. They were extremely lucky.

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Thanks for reading and don't forget to review!


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